First things first, we need to clarify something.
Current Pope Claudia III is not an evil person. If we were to categorize her nature as good or evil, she’d lean closer to good.
So why is it that this supposedly good person supports zealots, overlooks all sorts of inhumane acts, and sometimes even leads them herself?
The answer is simple.
I said she’s good; I didn’t say she’s sane.
Claudia III is a lunatic. She has begun to love the goddess not just in a religious way, but in a rational sense, and her feelings have twisted to possessiveness beyond mere romantic feelings.
If her followers, the One Who Devours the Twilight, are blind in faith, wanting to dedicate all the miracles of the world to the goddess and sing her praises.
Claudia can be seen as a crazy psycho lesbian wanting to bring the goddess down to use as her carpet.
In a way, she’s the greatest blasphemer in this worldview.
So, I’m not surprised by anything Claudia has done.
… I wasn’t.
“Fifty years ago, the pope personally led an inquisitor team and obtained a bundle of the goddess’s hair on the third floor. And she attached half to her own head and transplanted the other half… well, down below,” I said.
“Is she really insane????”
It’s not shocking that Claudia has maintained her youth for almost 120 years, thanks to various blessings and immense divine power.
The problem is the content of it.
Right. Let’s assume the hair is excusable. Wearing the skin of a beast like clothing, wearing a mask depicting a powerful being, or even modern cosplay.
The desire to imitate those whom we admire and revere has always existed throughout history.
But to transplant it down below… I mean, she used it for her own intimate purposes?!
“Wow. I couldn’t even imagine this.”
As I let out a hollow laugh, I felt a tiny twitching from my pocket.
I peeked at the goddess statue I had hidden in my inner pocket.
There was a statue of the goddess, covering her face with both hands and bowing her head deeply.
Yeah. It’s only natural to feel embarrassed when the pope is sitting there with that thing. She must have been shocked.
“Ugh.”
I let out a huge sigh and patted my pocket as I continued speaking.
“But why is this important? Sure, it’s a shocking event… but isn’t it just a blasphemy? The pope can just cover that up.”
“Yes. While the act itself is indeed quite disgusting, the issue lies in the role of that hair on the third floor.”
“What? The goddess wouldn’t just leave part of herself in the labyrinth without any purpose.”
Gods cannot achieve absolute perfection by their nature, but since they exist from that moment, they are complete beings.
The immortality of the gods naturally comes from that integrity.
So, if part of them were to fall off, they would naturally know about it. Unless there’s a special case, they could reclaim it anytime.
If they didn’t, it’s because there’s a reason they left it behind intentionally.
… Considering the fragments of disaster I saw on the third floor and the spread of wrong knowledge as common sense, there’s really only one reason for this.
“It was a seal for the disaster on the third floor, wasn’t it?”
“How did you know?”
“Jonah. Another one of my talents.”
Karen’s eyes widened in surprise. Next to her, Lydia, who seemed clueless munching on a skewer she picked up along the way, cleared her throat for some reason.
I wiped the sauce off her lips with my finger and shook my head.
“Hey. Finish eating first. You’re spilling sauce all over.”
Then I sucked the sauce off my finger, causing Lydia to flinch momentarily. She had been contemplating for a while before offering her skewer.
“Want a bite?”
“Not eating because I wanted to… But it is an interesting taste.”
After I wiped off my saliva on Lydia’s sleeve and pretended I saw nothing, I turned back to Karen, who was tightly shutting her eyes.
“I noticed because it was nothing special. I recently encountered a Gear Doppelganger on the third floor, and it claimed to be a twisted form resulting from the disaster being sealed. According to my knowledge of the labyrinth, it’s absolutely impossible for the disaster to leak out.”
“I’ve been misinformed until now. However, after listening to Jonah’s story the other day, I started looking into records in the temple and found something odd. I noticed discrepancies were increasing, so I dug through the old records.”
“Oh… That sounds like the destruction of records?”
“Similar. It’s more discreet and mild than outright annihilation, so it’s closer to manipulation.”
“It’s pretty much the same.”
I shrugged casually and opened my mouth in a low voice.
“So? You said you found the records? Did you find any information?”
“Yes. The disaster sealed on the third floor is the faceless demon. Specifically, the aspect known as the Prime Doppelganger.”
“I know what that is. It’s quite famous.”
The faceless demon. At the moment when the God of Justice died, and the God of Death attempted to resurrect its corpse.
Somehow, the God of Justice turned into the God of Sin, losing control.
This had never happened before, and since the God of Justice was quite powerful, the God of Sin was not to be underestimated, so it eventually faced the wrath of many gods and met death once again…
After killing it, it became clear. There had never been a God of Sin to begin with.
The countless evils born of war happened to enter the empty corpse of the God of Justice due to luck.
It was not reborn as the God of Sin but rather had parasitized the corpse of the God of Justice, maliciously interpreting and wielding its remaining divinity.
Knowing this fact, the gods tried to eliminate the disaster born out of malice, but… ultimately they failed.
Since the evil was born from the gods’ conflict, it was only natural for it to have resistance to their powers.
But mortals couldn’t intervene, as the faceless demon was too cunning and its abilities were outrageous.
It sowed distrust between people and mocked faith; how could the war-torn populace cope with that?
However, an unexpected solution was found.
The faceless demon happened to see the Goddess of Love and fell in love at first sight.
It’s not a sweet love story; it means a blazing desire to defile something pure in the basest way possible.
Wandering the battlefield doing horrific acts, the demon eventually holed itself up, wanting to transform into the Goddess of Love.
Given that the only goddess fulfilling her divine duties during the War of the Gods, it was only natural.
Well, no matter how many attempts were made, it failed every time.
Because divinity isn’t something you can imitate if it’s not something like the corpse of the God of Justice.
But a similar face, similar powers, and similar greatness could be mimicked.
However, no matter what, it could never replicate the face of the Goddess of Love.
Since the evil birthed during the War of the Gods had a strong resistance to divine power, it displayed weakness when facing the Goddess of Love, who had remained aloof from the battle.
Or precisely, it was strong against the gods who participated in the war. When facing the Goddess of Love, it was in its original state.
During the war, many gods fell, and the last one left remained sealed in the labyrinth, but… a god is a god. Not an easy existence.
Anyway, the faceless demon, while fixated on the only goddess who didn’t participate in the war, paradoxically found it impossible to taint her.
After repeatedly failing to imitate the Goddess of Love, it ended up melting away, becoming a formless, shapeless entity.
It kept repeating the same actions until the very end of the War of the Gods.
However, it didn’t step forward, keeping to itself, but if someone got too close, it would replicate the target and attempt to destroy it.
The gods, recognizing this danger, tried to hunt it down but ultimately failed and decided to bury it in the labyrinth.
Filled with endless malice in its mind and split into multiple forms, it was sealed separately on the fourth and third floors.
The God of Death buried himself with malice in his heart, granting himself eternal rest, thus sealing himself.
While on the third floor, they tossed part of the Goddess of Love’s body into the tightly sealed space, forcing it to lock itself away and repeat transformation and self-destruction.
I had just found out that the “part of her body” in question was a bundle of hair.
“But deliberately breaking the seal and even bringing out a strand of hair? This explains why the disaster fragments are wandering in the labyrinth…”
“Yes. It’s not officially documented, but I found such details in an old personal diary during my research.”
“An old inquisitor’s diary? Fifty years ago, that person could still be alive, right?”
“Regrettably, upon realizing the pope’s intentions, they set out to judge heresy and were killed instead. The official record states they were confused and succumbed to the One Who Devours the Twilight.”
“Hmm. I suppose so. If the inquisitor discovers heresy, they must eradicate it. Just in case, Karen, don’t act without saying anything first, okay?”
“Don’t worry. My faith is devoted to the goddess, and this body is devoted to the saint. As ordered before, I’m quietly focusing on the investigation without causing a fuss.”
“Hmm. Good job.”
Standing on tiptoes, I reached out, and Karen lowered her head to make it easier for me to reach.
I gently ruffled her hair and then asked, “Since I’m currently raiding the third floor, would you like to join me, Karen? I’d like to check out where the seal was, if possible.”
“I will gladly follow.”
Karen knelt on one knee, silently bowing her head.
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